Developments

Tom--
Tom is a talker. There's a line from The Incredibles that he quotes all the time--"You sly dog! You got me monologuing!" And we sincerely believe that if Tom were a super villain, monologuing would be his downfall. Not only is he a bit of a blatherskite (I've been on dictionary.com today:), but he scripts our lives for us. "Mom, can you tell me, 'Good job! That is correct!'?" "Katie, say, 'I don't know, sweetheart.'" "Dancy, can you say, 'Thank you, Tommy!'?" (Dancy is not talking in words yet.) Yesterday on the phone, he told Grandma that when she comes to visit, they'll play and he will get married. He will get married when he's big like when he's 6. He also likes to explain everything under the sun to Katie. Here's a dialogue from breakfast a few days ago:
Tom: "And that's what she said, my dear!"
Me: "Okay, my dear!"
Tom: "I'm not your dear."
Me: "Yes you are."
Katie: "You're a REINdeer!"
Tom: "Katie! She is NOT a reindeer. She's a mother! Only Santa Claus has reindeer to FLY through the sky. You understand?!"
He's also started climbing on the backs and arms of couches so he can jump around and slide down the backside. This needs to stop, because he's had several close calls with serious injury.

Katie--
She's potty training! And she's absolutely amazing. We started 10 days ago, and have only done training half of those days because I've had morning all-day sickness. Already, she's got the peeing under control and I don't have to monitor her on it, and she pooped voluntarily this morning! In the middle of playing and while I was resting on the couch trying not to throw up, she ran to the bathroom and came back to report that she peed. Tom and I ran to the bathroom to celebrate with her, only to find that it was a HUGE poop, and not pee! (Okay, so the girl needs to straighten out her pee from her poo.) But that is a HUGE accomplishment! Way to go, Miss Independent! She also calls and texts her favorite people all the time. She calls Uncle Levi, Grandma and Nana much more often than I actually let her. She has fake conversations with them, which are quite fluent. Last week she pretended to call Grandma on her camera and said, "Hi Gamma. Um, I  just miss you a lot. Where's Gampa? He's at work, sweetie."

Dancy--
She's sitting up professionally now. She's following suit of Tom and Katie and refusing to eat baby food. She got a taste of Mom's cooking and has refused to eat the jar stuff ever since. She enjoys eating anything we're eating--yogurt, tortellini, Cheese Soup, 7 layer dip, etc. She loves feeding herself bananas, carrots, crackers and cereal in her high chair. She's not crawling or scooting yet. Not even an army crawl. We think she's more of a swimmer. When she gets excited and wants something or someone, she flexes her abs so that her body lifts higher, then waves and kicks with frantic excitement. Otherwise, she's quite content to just rotate and roll around. She also loves to talk. And she's quite loud about it. A couple weeks ago I had to sit in the foyer of church during sacrament meeting because Dancy wanted to talk. She likes to laugh. Sometimes she'll be playing on the floor and we'll make eye contact and smile at each other. Then we just laugh with each other and she thinks it's so fun! She loves to play with Tom and Katie, and they always ask if she can get down on the floor to play with them. Tom will run around and throw himself into walls or down on the floor and get Dancy laughing up a storm. Katie will sit and read books to her, and share babies.

Me--
Did I say morning sickness? Yes, I'm pregnant:) My development is the size of a blueberry. Along with a delightful aversion to FOOD. Gosh, it is so hard to find anything that sounds appetizing. Not just appetizing, but something that I can think about eating without it making me wretch. Absolutely can't eat fish. I'm not near as sick as I was with Tommy, but a bit more than I was with Katie and Dancy. Baby Blueberry is due on my birthday, September 25. Tom says he also has a baby in his belly, and that his baby's name is Ryan. His baby Ryan doesn't make him sick, but sometimes my baby makes me sick.

December Delights

We felt like we were in such a scramble the whole month that we hardly did many fun Christmasy things, or at least it felt that way. We did get to experience a lot of new things, though--games, friends, food and movies. Okay, if any of this writing sounds weird and disconnected, it's because my head really isn't in this right now, but I'm pushing myself to write anyway.

Okay, games: Shad's coworker Andy asked Shad to learn his game Ventura for him. Andy said he learned better being taught, rather than reading. It actually turned out to be a lot more work than anyone would have anticipated. Ventura is an Italian game (translated into English) and apparently their organization for the explanation of rules is really disorganized and discombobulated. I can't remember exactly, but I think it took Shad upwards of 3 hours to read through the first time. After playing it once, Shad reread the rules to make sure he got everything. Short description of Ventura for those who are interested: You are an Italian family in the 14th Century warring against other families for land, wealth, and fame. Real historical military leaders are on the military cards. We rate this game 4 out of 5 stars--losing one for the rule book. Also! Bonus feature of the game--everyone else hated the ridiculous rule book too, so the $80 game is $20 on the internet as game stores are trying to get it off their shelves. Shad and Andy now play Ventura at work with another coworker during their breaks. Since they can't just have the game out on a table, Andy has them playing it out of 2 drawers in his tool cabinet. Yes, we are that into our games!



Friends: We got better acquainted with Andy and his wife Denise. They live in Beaver City, Nebraska, which is about 30 minutes north of us. We had them over for pizza and Ventura. Denise brought a fantastic dessert--cookie dough baked in brownie batter. I really need to try making that myself! So good! After dinner, I ran out to the theater for 45 minutes to train Andrew (Shad's manager) and his wife Kynzie in working concessions at the theater. Jeremy (theater manager) had called asking for help, but since we had plans we couldn't. We found Andrew and Kynzie to help Jeremy instead, and I went to train them. Super competent concessions workers! We also got to enjoy Andy and Denise's company more after the Natoma Christmas party. Several of Shad's coworkers asked if it was time for games at our house when the party ended, so we had a spontaneous game night. We played Smallworld with 8 players (it's a 5 player game, so we used the 5 player and 3 player boards together) and played in teams of two.

Food: Denise's cookie brownies were delightful and talking about them is making me crave them now. We also had a Brazilian meal for our International Christmas dinner. Mouthwatering Brazilian pork ribs with Brazilian rice, and steamed broccoli. I cooked the ribs in the crockpot instead of oven, and used the broth in Beef Stew the next day. Oh, we couldn't get over how deliciously juice it was! We're excited to have it again soon.

Movies: We introduced Tom and Katie to the Home Alone movies. Just the first two. Anything after that doesn't count. It was such a treat to watch with them. When it got to the booby trap scene at the end of the first movie, Tom and Katie were dying laughing!

I was going to write about Christmas in a different post, but since I started with the food here, I'll continue here. Christmas Eve I baked the last kind of cookie I wanted to bake, then we made up our goodie bags and went out to deliver them. We sang carols to our friends and neighbors as we delivered them cookies. We also drove around looking at lights in the process. We exchanged gifts at Paul and Mallory's house while we were there. We gave them Epic, they gave us Monsters, Inc., a cowgirl Jessie costume for Katie, and Dominion (a card game). Tom was so excited over Monsters, Inc! We were already planning on having hot chocolate with popcorn and a movie when we got home, so we watched Monsters, Inc. Okay, maybe they all watched Monsters, Inc while I finished wrapping presents and stuffing stockings. And Tom watched the movie almost daily for the next 3 weeks.

Christmas morning, Elder Willden and Elder Hammond came over to spend the day with us at 8:30. We opened presents together, then cooked breakfast while Tom and Katie were downstairs watching Epic, which Katie got for Christmas. We pretty much didn't see the kids all day. They watched their two movies and played in the basement, except for when they came up to ask for food. We played games with Willden and Hammond. They helped assemble the breakfast burritos that I had made the filling for earlier that week.

My favorite husband got me a grain grinder for Christmas, which, truth be told, is the one thing I wanted, but didn't want to ask for because I thought it was too much. He's the best! He also got me a Civil War battle map and a Pirates of the Caribbean Davy Jones' chest CD player--something I wanted 9 years ago when it came out in Target. Now it's in my sewing/craft room, if I ever have time to go there and enjoy it.

Our house has two heaters/coolers--one in the attic that circulates the upstairs, and one in the basement that circulates the basement and main floor. The upstairs one (that has had problems with the a/c for a couple years) broke at the end of the month. So we bought one space heater and borrowed another and will just wait to replace the unit with tax returns.

Tom and Katie helped get out all our Christmas decorations.

 

Dancy had fun with all the new stuff to play with.

 

Tom and Katie did a good job decorating the tree.

 

Despite her face, Dancy is Shad's number one fan! And in case you're wondering, those two circles on Shad's forehead--those are from those plastic poppers that you invert and then they pop up in the air. You know what I'm talking about? He and Tom were putting them on their heads.

 

Tom found a new way to climb on the couch.

 

Over the back!

 

The sum of all December--Christmas, chaos, happy kids.